USA Today published a great editorial this week about how some states — including Colorado, which it mentions — continue to keep the public “in the dark about public pensions.”

“Such secrecy is particularly egregious,” the editorial says, “at a time when pumped-up pensions for state legislators and workers, detailed in a series of stories by USA TODAY’s Tom Frank, are beginning to overwhelm many governments, forcing cuts in state and local services and pressuring tax rates upward — even pushing a handful of cities into bankruptcy.”

It’s worth reading the entire piece, which was triggered by revelations in Oregon that former head football coach for the Oregon Ducks, Mike Bellotti, is pulling down a state pension of more than $41,000 a month.

The pension program for members of Congress may not be as generous as many public pensions, and it may amount to a mere drop in the bucket in terms of total federal spending, but Rep. Mike Coffman insists its very existence undermines congressional credibility in addressing retirement programs that truly are a threat to national solvency.

“We’re going to have to make some difficult decisions regarding benefits for federal workers and the military and Social Security,” the Republican told me. “I think we’d have more credibility if we did away with our defined benefit plan,” while allowing members to continue to participate in a “thrift savings program” similar to a 401(k).

As if to underline Coffman’s point about the urgent need to address other retirement benefits, USA Today has published an article that concludes “retirement programs for former federal workers — civilian and military — are growing so fast they now face a multitrillion-dollar shortfall nearly as big as Social Security’s.”

Even more disturbing, “The federal government hasn’t set aside money or created a revenue source similar to Social Security’s payroll tax to help pay for the benefits, so the retirement costs must be paid every year through taxes and borrowing.”

Read the entire article for an appreciation of why Congress must get serious – and soon – about slowing the growth of pensions.

Denver residents who support the city retirement system through their taxes generally qualify for a pension in their mid-60s. City employees, meanwhile, qualify for their public pension at age 55 if they have worked at least 20 years. Vidal – like John Hickenlooper before him – would like to hike the minimum retirement age for future hires to 60 and require at least 25 years of service to qualify.

How can city council members possibly justify increasing the amount that taxpayers contribute to the Denver retirement system while preserving such a wide disparity in retirement ages?

Politicians invoke fairness all of the time when increasing publicly provided benefits. Yet they need to appreciate that the concept cuts both ways and that taxpayers in private employment expect to be treated fairly by their municipal leaders, too.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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To reach the Denver Post editorial page by phone: 303-954-1331

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